[A post of mine from another forum]
There are two sides to salvation:
1) God's faithfulness to man
2) Man's faithfulness to God
Eternal Securists are careful to pull out of context just the verses that speak about God's faithfulness to man and wrongly claim that God's faithfulness is because of "eternal security" yet they purposely ignore the verses that speak that man must be faithful to God. No verse says God will remain faithful to those that become unfaithful to Him.
If I had a nickel for everytime
Jn 10:28 has been pulled out of context by the Eternal Securists (ES). The ES says, "see the verses says "neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand".
One may ask "why does God not let any man pluck them out of HIs hand"
The ES is quick to respond "eternal security" and thereby adds and forces that into the text.
Yet verse 27 tells us "who" God holds in HIs hand and "why" God does not let them be plucked out of His hand and it has
NOTHING AT ALL to do with the man-made doctrine of eternal security.
Verse 27 Jesus says "
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me;"
Jesus said
MY sheep. So the qualification to be one of Christ's sheep and be held in God's hand is "hearing" and "following" Christ.
1) both verbs hear and follow are Greek present tense denoting an ongoing, sustain action, not something one does just once or sporadically
2) people hear and follow by choice, therefore one can quit hearing and following by choice.
So those that God holds in HIs hand that cannot be plucked out are Christ's sheep, the ones that are faithful in their hearing and following Christ. Yet one can quit being faithful inhishearing and following and remive himslef from God's hand. Again, nowhere does the any context say God will be faithful to those that become unfaithful to HIm.
So we have both sides of the salvation equation: (1) man's faithfulness to God in his hearing and following Christ and (2) God's faithfulness to those who remain faithful in hearing and following Christ.
God's faithfulness is in no way unconditional...God will not remain unconditionally faithful to those who become unfaithful to Christ in their hearing and following.
Another example is
Phil 1:6 "
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ"
The ES pulls this verse out of context and claim God will performs this work unconditionally because of eternal security.
Yet verse 5 says "
For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now"
They had remained faithful in the gospel from the first day until now, so God is faithful to continue to perform that good work in them.
So again we have both sides of the equation:
Man's faithfulness in remaining in the gospel
God's faithfulnness in performing that good work in them
As long as they remained in the gospel Paul was confident God would perfom that good work. Had they fallen away, outside the gospel God would not have continued that good work unconditionally.
Those in Galatia had fallen away from the gospel,
Gal 1:6 and that unfaithfulness led to their being "fallen from grace"
Gal 5:4